Ebola updates from the NIH and Nebraska

More good news is being reported on the yet unnamed Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) patient who arrived at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit (SCSU) on Mar. 13 for treatment.

Image/CDC

According to NIH officials yesterday, the patient’s status has been upgraded from serious to fair condition.

The infected individual was serving a medical mission in Sierra Leone where the Ebola virus was contracted.

At the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where five patients are being monitored for EVD, one of the patients suffered a cardiac issue not related to EVD. According to Nebraska officials, this person was jogging near the medical center campus Saturday afternoon and had a cardiac issue. A health care worker immediately administered medical aid. The person was admitted to Nebraska Medicine and is currently in stable condition.

“It is important for everyone to understand this patient does not have Ebola,” says Phil Smith, MD, medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. “Out of an abundance of caution, we ran an Ebola test immediately after the patient was admitted on Saturday. That test came back negative. There is no risk to hospital staff, patients, those assisting at the scene or the public.”

The group of five people are nearing the end of their 21 day surveillance and have been monitored twice daily on the medical center campus in a joint effort between Nebraska Medicine and our partners in the Douglas County Health Department, supported by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

“These five patients are being monitored twice daily for the possibility of Ebola symptoms, which have never developed,” says Dr. Adi Pour, director of the Douglas County Health Department. “From the beginning, we have been following the monitoring guidelines put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All five patients are still not an infection risk.”

All five are health care workers who were serving a medical mission in Sierra Leone when a colleague tested positive for Ebola. That colleague is being cared for at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.